Tunnels

24Apr

I haven’t talked about the tunnels yet to the best of my recollection.

With the Latissimus Dorsi Flap breast reconstruction, the surgeon takes part of your back muscle, along with the corresponding fat and skin, detaches one end from the connection near the spine and brings the entire mass around UNDER the skin to the chest. The tunnels are not small. They are about the width of a hand and a half.Which is MUCH larger than I thought they would be. It makes sense though when moving large volumes of tissue that the way to move it would have to be larger than what is being moved.

This explains why it feeels like someone is sawing away at my armpits with razor wire. The nerves are SO raw and sensative in the tunnel area that even minor movement can make them flare up.

The use of tunnels makes this type of reconstruction so much safer because one end of the muscle and tissue is left attached to the original blood supply. This steady blood supply greatly reduces the possibility of necrosis